Us and the Bottle Man

us the bottle, of course, and there is only one natural thing to do with an empty olive-bottle when you're on a water picnic. That i

side the big fallen-over slab that looks just like the entrance to a pirate cave. We had a fire, of course, and a lot o

g was smeary and looked quite as if shipwrecked mariners had written it with charred twigs out of the fire. We'd done lots of messages when we were on other water picnics, but we'd never heard from any of them, although one reason for that was t

leaf was torn out of Aunt Ailsa's sketch-book, and then I pu

gs to write, till the page was quit

Atlantic Ocean, lat. and long. unknown. Our position is very perilous, as we have exhausted all our sup

ggs," said G

d dismal coast. Our ship, the good ferry-boat Wecanicut, left us marooned, and there is no hope of our being picked up for the next two hours. Any person finding this message, please come to

Jerry said. "Put 'Chris,' i

and Jerry wrote "Gerald M. Holford," and put "?t. 11" after it, but I'm sure he didn't know what it m

te lots more than

,-I was laughing to

's an abbreviated French wa

t 88 and had done with it. We folded the paper up in the tinfoil that the chocolate came in and jammed it into the bottle and pounded the cork in tight with a stone. Greg was all for chucking it immediately, but Jerry

cave. They shone rather faintly and looked exactly like double moidores, except that those are gold, I think. We also borrowed Aunt Ailsa's hatpin with the Persian coin on the end. By running the pin down into the sand all the way, you can make it

f an enormous lot of things which the villainous band had buried,-golden chains, and uncut jewels, and pots of louis d'ors, and church chalices (Jerry says chasubles, but I think not). Greg and Jerry had dragged all these things up from the edge of

artillery practice down at the Fort, and ju

he English vessel!" Jerr

ocks of hair had escaped from under it. He always manages to have something not quite right about his costumes. He has very nice hair-curly, and quite amberish colored-but it's not at all like a pirate's. I poked him from behind to make him hurry, for Jerry was pointing at a big schooner that was coming down t

he schooner had passed, "but

way he mixes up language. We'd been reading "Kid

ry like she's but hove to in the offing, and for aught yo

d of the point and have

nd tell him he's "too plain American," but I think it isn't fair, becau

t's all stones and seaweed and big surf sometimes. The surf was not very high this time,-just waves that went whoosh and then p

an ignominious death. But, Chris, look a

we know of. We'd always wanted awfully to go out there and explore it, but the only time we ever asked old Captain Moss, who has boats for hire, he

y to see clearly what had happened, but it seemed as if a piece of rock had fallen away on the side t

unnel!" Greg shouted, leaping u

and it really is quite a

shouldn't wonder if it were. Captain Kidd was up and down the coast here. What if

e we could see into the blackness with it. Mercy, I wish we

eg, and started running back down the

urse it's a natural cave in the rock

en they saw it, that it was something new. Aunt Ailsa thought it looked very exciting an

around those rocks," she said; "and

men, bold of heart and undeterred by grown-ups. We knew, too, that Captain Moss would say, "Pshaw!" if we told him there mig

and Captain Lewis held the ferry for him. Everybody leaned out from the rail and peered up the landing, because they thought it must be a fire or the President or something. They all looked awfully disappointed when it was only Greg, with the black necktie still arou

t-the moi

his head. Jerry hates to have his relatives look s

ething?" but we told him it was just an old bottle we didn't want, and not to mind. We watched it go bob-bobbing along beside an old barrel-head that

oing home, and had almost forgotten the bottle, "perhaps it

Jerry, "perh